The present invention relates to article dispensing, and more particularly to an adjustable dispenser for holding and dispensing various sizes of plastic or paper cups and the like, including the new jumbo size, stacked therewithin.
Dispensers designed to store and dispense stacked plastic or paper conical cups are well known in the prior art. For example, radial projections or retainers located in the discharge opening of the dispenser frictonally engage the rim of the first cup of an inverted stack. As the first cup is stripped off the stack, the weight of the cups or a spring behind the stack pushes the remaining cups outwards until the rim of the next cup frictionally engages the retainers. The retainers can be adjusted in or out of the opening to accommodate different cup sizes, but the adjustment is not usually accessible at the discharge end or front of the container. Therefore, when the dispenser is flush-mounted in an enclosure or panel, it must be removed to adjust for another size of cup. My prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,983, issued Apr. 21, 1987, provides an extremely simple and inexpensive mechanism accessible on the front of the dispenser for adjusting, with the fingers, leaf-spring type retainers which extend to the front from within the storage tube. However, the retainers project into the storage tube and preclude the dispenser's use for a new extra large or so-called jumbo cup series without enlarging the tube. Larger tubes are logistically undesirable as they would entail additional inventory over and above that for existing tubes which are still in use, and would require retrofitting the cutouts of the existing panel or countertop or completely replacing the panels to realize the needed space. Other adjustable cup dispensers in the prior art are equally unsuitable for similar reasons, or the adjusting mechanisms are inaccessible on the front of the tube, or they are too complex and difficult to adjust.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cup dispenser suitable for holding and dispensing a wide range of large cup sizes which can be mounted with a minimum of panel space, which can be readily adjusted for various size cups from the front of the panel with the fingers of the hand, and which can be tightly locked at the adjusted position. Another object of the invention is to provide an adjustable cup dispenser for a range of cup sizes in which the large cups can be accommodated in a relatively narrow dispenser. Another object is to provide a cup dispenser having adjustable retainers for controlling the discharge of cups from a stack in which the retainers cannot be inadvertently removed or displaced when the dispenser is flush-mounted in a panel or enclosure, which can be inexpensively manufactured almost entirely of molded plastic materials, and which is relatively easy to assemble, operate and maintain.
Briefly, these and other objects of the invention are accomplished with a novel and improved cup dispenser adjustable for dispensing a wide range of cup sizes, including the new jumbo size, from a storage tube in which they are stacked with their open end facing inward. The discharge end or front of the tube includes a flange or ring for flush-mounting on a panel. At least three retainers radially slidable within the flange frictionally engage the rim of the first cup to be discharged as the weight of the cups or a spring-biased cup pusher within the tube, or both, urges the entire stack outward. Each retainer includes at least one tooth intermeshing with a groove of a serrate surface within the flange at a selected position, and thumbscrew extending through slots in the flange lock them in place. The shank of each thumbscrew includes means for preventing the thumbscrew from being inadvertently removed.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.